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1640 countermark on a 1578-G [Poitiers Mint] Henri III Sol Parisis a la Croisette Fleurdelisee, Cian

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:150.00 CAD Estimated At:400.00 - 500.00 CAD
1640 countermark on a 1578-G [Poitiers Mint] Henri III Sol Parisis a la Croisette Fleurdelisee, Cian

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Host Coin of Henri III (ruled 1574-1589), Vlack 1i Type - 1640 countermark on a 1578-G [Poitiers Mint] Henri III Sol Parisis a la Croisette Fleurdelisee, Ciani 1447, Duplessy 1137, Sombart 4474. Fine, struck an exceptionally rare host coin, a type completely unknown to Robert Vlack when he wrote his book, the Sol Parisis had a circulating value of 15 Deniers, as compared to the 12 Deniers of the douzains, and the fleur-de-lys countermark raised their value to 18 Deniers. Most of the legends are visible, the mintmark strong, and with just a trace of the date visible, enough to be certain of the year (Poitiers struck this denomination in only 1578, 1583, 1585 and 1586, so a trace of the last two digits are enough to securely place it). A very rare host coin, Sombart lists no mintage figures for the Poitiers mint for this type, and for the years and mints that do have those figures they are often in the low thousands, and only ten mintages are over 10,000 coins (and the largest is just under 88,000). This is a distinct type in the series, most easily recognizable on the obverse, where HENRICVS starts at the bottom, instead of at the top as on other issues of this king. Few Sol Parisis exist with a 1640 countermark – their size was close enough to the regular douzain issues that they would have invariably been confused with that type in circulation, resulting in a net loss of 3 Deniers if it circulated at the lower value. As such, countermarks on this denomination are excessively rare. This host coin is also an extreme rarity in the series – Sombart lists just a single example found of this denomination in the groups he studied.